Today I’m sharing a giant set of free picture cards for developing vocabulary, promoting critical thinking, and learning alphabet sounds!
(This post contains affiliate links.)
Today I’m excited to share a project I’ve spent many hours on… alphabet picture cards. If you print the whole download, you get 192 bright photo cards for all kinds of early learning!
I printed the pages on cardstock, laminated them, and cut them apart. Now I have a beautiful set of cards that will last for years!
10 ways to use my alphabet picture cards
1. Talk about the pictures. My Two was very excited when he saw the cards and wanted to look at the pictures with me. He sat by the window with a small stack and named each picture, with my help. While your child may not want to use them this way, you can talk about the pictures as you sit together.
“What’s this called? What can you do with it? Is it something you would like to eat? Where would you find it?”
(Note: These are not designed to be flash cards. Please remember that young children have short attention spans and may lose interest after a handful of cards. No problem!)
2. Find the picture. Put the cards out in a grid and name the one you want your child to find. This is excellent vocabulary building for toddlers and young preschoolers, who may not know as many words as you think they do.
Case in point: Our Two (soon to be three) is a bright little boy, but often mixes up basic vocabulary. For the longest time whenever a fly came into our house, he would yell, “A bee! A bee!” One day he announced confidently, “Flies make honey!” 🙂
3. Sort the pictures. We started by sorting the pictures into things we can eat and those we can’t. For a sorting exercise, you’ll probably want to go through the cards and select a stack that will work well for the activity.
Try these sorts for toddlers and preschoolers:
animals / not animals things we wear / things we don’t wear things in our house / things outside food I like / food I don’t likeThese are more challenging and are best for older preschoolers and up:
living / nonliving needs / wants
4. Which one doesn’t belong? This will take a little bit of preparation on your part, but it’s worth it for a fun activity! Set up four cards, and have your child find the picture that doesn’t belong.
The possibilities are endless! You can make these simple or challenging. Here are just a few ideas. Can your child find the one that’s different?
3 foods and 1 animal 3 healthy foods and 1 junk food 3 real animals and 1 toy animal 3 vegetables and 1 fruit 3 toys and 1 food 3 musical instruments and 1 household object5. Find the rhyming picture. Set out a few cards and name a word that rhymes with one of the pictures. Have your child find its matching rhyme. You can use nonsense words too! Don’t be afraid to say, “Can you find the word that rhymes with bapple?”
6. Find the picture with 1, 2, or 3 syllables. For example, put out the carrot, bat, and ambulance cards. Tell your child to find the picture whose name has just one syllable. Help him clap the words so he can identify “bat” as the correct answer.
7. Sort by beginning sound. When you print the alphabet cards (available as a separate download), you can use them as headers for the columns. Give your child just two sets of cards, for two different letters. Help him identify the beginning sound and sort.
8. Sort by ending sound.
9. Can you find the mystery picture? Before children are ready to learn to read, they need to be able to hear how sounds come together. You can practice this with these cards. Put out a set of cards and tell your child, “One of these is the mystery picture! Here’s my clue. I want you to point to the answer.”
Then say the sounds of a word, pausing in between each sound. For example: “/a/ /p/ /l/.” Eventually your child will be able to hear how the sounds come together to make a word, and he’ll choose the picture of the apple.
10. Which picture doesn’t belong?
This time, instead of focusing on what the pictures mean, focus on the words themselves. Help your child know what you’re looking for.
All of these pictures start with the same letter, except one. Which one doesn’t belong? All of these have 3 syllables, except one. Which one doesn’t belong? All of these end with the /t/ sound, except one. Which one doesn’t belong?What you’ll get in the download:
- 8 bright photo cards for each letter (but only 4 for letters q, x, y, and z)
- For each vowel, you’ll find 4 pictures for the short sound and 4 pictures for the long sound.
- For letters c and g, you’ll find 4 pictures for the hard sound and 4 pictures for the soft sound.
Want to save printer ink?
Print the smaller set. You’ll get just 4 pictures for each letter, but you’ll still get 8 total pictures for each vowel. You’ll also have 8 total pictures for letters c and g.
How to print
Print the pages front to back, starting on page 2. (Page 1 is my Terms of Use.) Be sure to set it up to flip on the short side. Do a practice page first! The backs of the cards are the names of each picture (see above). If you don’t want those, just print the even numbered pages. Be sure to print on cardstock to make these sturdy! If you laminate them, they should last for years.
How to store
This may be the coolest part! I designed the cards to fit in 3×5 index card boxes. Get a long box or two smaller ones to store the entire set (the smaller set will store in just one small box). Be sure to get some A-Z dividers so you can find what you need in a hurry.
Get the whole set, letters A-L HERE.
Get the whole set, letters M-Z HERE.
Get the smaller set, A-Z, HERE.
Get just the letter cards HERE.
(They come in lowercase, uppercase, and upper and lowercase together.)
P.S. Would you like to learn more about teaching the alphabet?
I’ve written a free e-mail series just for you!
Grab more freebies!
&
Get links to the best alphabet activities – organized into a daily curriculum!
© 2014 – 2020, Anna G. All rights reserved.
Karen @ PreKinders says
Wow, that’s an amazing set of picture cards! Thanks for sharing.
Anna Geiger says
Thank you, Karen! I’m honored to see you commenting here – thanks for giving my day a happy boost :).
Cheryl Balden says
I am always amazed at the wealth of information you provide us teachers! I have learned so much from you. Thanks for all your hard work! I teach pre-K and use ALOT of your materials.
Anna Geiger says
That’s wonderful to hear – thank you, Cheryl!
Peggy says
Thanks again, Anna! BTW, I am enjoying looking through the book of non-screen activities…that was fast!!
Anna Geiger says
I hope you’re enjoying it, Peggy!
akram.hooshmand says
Thanks alot for your valuable guidance.i am a teacher for esl kids please guide me more about your website.i am teaching for a year and i need some trips.
akram.hooshmand says
Thanks so much for your valuable tips.i am a teacher for esl. Kids. Please guide me more about teaching tips.have a nice day.
Anna Geiger says
Hello! I do not have experience teaching ESL, but you might want to contact these bloggers, as it’s something they know a lot about.
http://www.pre-kpages.com/ (for preschool)
http://kidworldcitizen.org/
http://amotherfarfromhome.com/
Dean Lottinger says
WOW! these are so great! I teach Pre-K Inclusion and these are going to be so helpful! The size is perfect for small group work. I really like the list of ways to use them. God bless you for the many hours you put in to help so many others! I’ll put these to good use.
Anna Geiger says
Yay, I’m so glad you can use these!
Peggy says
These look amazing! I look forward to using them with my Kindergarten intervention groups.
Thanks!
Anna Geiger says
You’re very welcome, Peggy!
Lisa says
Anna,
I love all of your teaching materials. May I ask what type of printer you have that can handle all of these picture cards? If I print these, my printer will run out of ink by the fourth page. What printer do you recommend?
Thanks,
Lisa
Anna Geiger says
Hi Lisa! I have an HP Laser Jet Pro 400 color printer, which is a top of the line printer. However, I had a Canon Pixma for years, which could have handled this without a problem. Hope that helps!
Yael says
These are great! Thank you very much!
Anna Geiger says
You’re very welcome, Yael – I’m so glad you like them!
Christina Strickland says
Nice printable! These are all so beautiful and definitely useful for homeschooling moms.
Anna Geiger says
Thank you, Christina!
Veronica Mobley says
I just saw these on Pinterest, I have only been teaching three year olds for about six months and need teaching materials with pictures. I am excited that I saw these and all your other items. Thank you for all your hard work and all you suggestions on how to use them.
Anna Geiger says
I hope you find a lot you can use here, Veronica! If you sign up for my newsletter you won’t miss a thing. 🙂
Lorene Sexton says
These cards are perfect! Thank you so much for all the time and effort it took you to gather these pictures to go with each letter. I just started teaching in an Adult Literacy Program and these are so much more dignified for adults rather than other flashcards geared for Pre K children. I can’t wait to show her.
Great job Anna!
Sincerely,
Lorene
Anna Geiger says
That’s wonderful, Lorene! I love to hear when my printables can be used for adult learners too. You might want to check out my level 3 handwriting pages (see the handwriting tab in the menu bar) if you are teaching penmanship. I’ve heard from other readers that those are good for adults.
Vicky says
I can’t get the alphabet cards to download. I have been trying for a week.
Thanks
Anna Geiger says
That’s why I have the box that says “having trouble downloading or printing?” Please click on it. You’ll find a solution.
Susan Childers says
Thank you so much for the pictures!! I’m a speech therapist and new pictures are so very welcome. I’ll use these for MANY things!
Anna Geiger says
Yay! So glad you can use them, Susan!
Lori Derkachenko says
Looks like great pictures!
Anna Geiger says
Thank you, Lori!
Daniela says
Hi! These picture cards are beautiful! Just wondering if you have a master list of all the words in this set? I’d like to put them in boxes in alphabetical order as you suggested, but keep a master list of the pictures I have available so I can quickly pull cards when I need them (e.g. know how many animals I have in my A-C section, D-F section etc., if I was working on identification of animals for example). Hope that makes sense.
Thanks!
Anna Geiger says
Hi Daniela! I’m sorry – I don’t have a master list. Normally I’d whip one up for you and post it, but we have a new baby and I have to save my extra minutes for sleep! 🙂
Sarah says
I am not able to save the M to Z picture cards for some reason. It says there is no file?? It opens just fine from your site, I’m just not able to save it. Any ideas?
Anna Geiger says
Did you RIGHT click on the word HERE and choose “save link as”?
Nissi says
These are wonderful cards! Unfortunately i cant seem to download them, and when I try to print from the web it wont allow me to use the short side flip to get the words on the back. Is there another link I can try to download from? Thanks
Anna Geiger says
Click on the image that says “having trouble downloading.” It will help you find a way to get the file onto your computer. It also tells you how to get the free Adobe Reader. When you open the file with Adobe Reader, you’ll be able to get the print option to print front to back.
Nissi says
Thank you. opening through Adobe did the trick! 🙂
yunjung says
Wow! Wonderful.
Thank you so much.
Anna Geiger says
You’re very welcome!
Nicola says
Hi Anna
Thanks for all your great resources !
I have a problem when printing out the alphabet cards the words don’t match up with the picture e.g. Behind apple is astronaut
Apricot is ambulance
Astronaut is apple
Ambulance is apricot
Do you have any suggestion?
Thanks a lot!
P.S. Congratulations on the birth of your baby, hope that you are getting enough sleep.
Anna Geiger says
Hi Nicola!
Thank you for your patience in waiting for my reply. For me, it only works to print these when I print with Adobe Acrobat. You need to download this free program to your computer https://get.adobe.com/reader/ . Then RIGHT CLICK and choose “Save link as” for the file you want to use. Name it whatever you want. Then open the file using Adobe Reader. When you print, choose front to back AND “flip on the short side.” That’s the key to getting it to print correctly.
Stacey says
Thank you so much for creating these great resources and sharing them for free!! 🙂
Anna Geiger says
You’re very welcome, Stacey!
Mercy Castillo says
Wonderful resources! I really admire you for creating this site and for making the materials available to all for free 🙂
Such a lovely person!
Anna Geiger says
Thank you, Mercy! I’m so glad you can use my printables! 🙂
humaira says
Hi Anna love the preciuos resources n realy greatfull to u. photo cards of letter h r missing in the letter h activities. y v love them a lot.
Anna Geiger says
Could you be more specific, Humaira? Which link is missing letter h?
Linda says
Sincere appreciation for sharing your talent! Your kindness and unconditional love inspires me and has helped children become successful learners!
Anna G says
Thank you so much for the kind words, Linda!
Kay says
Thank you so much for sharing these. These are beautiful and perfect for me to use with my son.
Anna G says
You’re welcome, Kay!
shobha says
cant find the link to this free download
Anna G says
Look for the brown links that say HERE – near the end of the post.
Jin says
Thank you so much for sharing these cards. It is helpful to teach beginning sounds.
Anna G says
You’re welcome, Jin!